


It Felt Good to be Out of the Rain

by RedLlamas



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Cowboys & Cowgirls, Desert, Gen, Horses, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:19:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28843725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLlamas/pseuds/RedLlamas
Summary: Ryan comes away from life's confusion into a quiet, peaceful place.
Relationships: Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24





	It Felt Good to be Out of the Rain

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Null](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nullvoid) for checking it!  
> And, clearly, inspired by "[A Horse With No Name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSZXWdKSQNM)" by America

Ryan steals the white horse in the dead of night. It's done in a hurry, but he takes care to choose the best horse. The white horse has a sturdy frame, and strong legs. He pats its back, testing its reaction, knows he doesn't have time to saddle it up. It's bare, save for the halter buckled around its face. Ryan grabs a rope, and ties it under its jaw, leading it out of the stable. He keeps looking over his shoulder, wary of voices and shadows moving about.

He leads the horse to the back of the buildings, dipping his head whenever they cross an alley. The horse trots beside him, and right when a light shines his face, and the men shout and draw their guns, he grabs onto its mane, and jumps, swings a leg over it. Seated, he presses his knees against the horse, keeps himself steady, and kicks his ankles into its sides, spurring it into a gallop.

He hears the men holler after him, hears the bullets race through the air. He ducks, presses close to the horse's neck, smiles to himself. They won't be able to catch him.

The first day together was spent gently strolling through all the shrubs and scattered patches of grass. There were trees spread throughout as well, and Ryan could hear the song of birds as they passed underneath their crowns.

There was a fly that wouldn’t stop bothering them. The horse’s tail kept swatting its hinds, and Ryan batted the air before him. He looked up, and saw a clear sky, with not a cloud in sight. The sun beat down on them harshly.

He looked over his shoulder, where he had left the town behind him. He couldn’t even see it anymore, and he grinned. He patted the horse’s neck, and received a well-natured whinny.

The heat was nice, though. It was a change from the rains of his youth, and the suffocation of town after town, air dusty with liars and dust. There was also no one to give him no pain here, in the desert. Just him and the horse.

Two days later, they were feeling the effects of the desert sun. Ryan made them stop at night to sleep, let the horse rest. He’d let it know it could trust him, letting it lay down onto its side. Ryan patted its wide body, feeling how its breath reverberated through it. He thought of where they could go, now that they were so far away from society. He fell asleep laying against its back, and awoke to burning skin. The horse didn’t look so well either, so he didn’t ride it, and instead walked beside it.

The next day, they came upon a riverbed, a dried up riverbed. There were small pools of water, from which they drank, but the entirety of the river that had been made Ryan sad. He didn’t want it to be dead.

He looks up at the horse, who is sniffing out grass to eat. Under the sun’s glare, it looks white, but holding his hand before him, Ryan can see that it’s not white, it’s a dull creamy color.

That’s good, that’s good. It’s good that it’s not white. Ryan doesn’t want to think about death, here, anymore.

He asks the horse to stay with him, keep him alive just a little while longer. It can only blink with its enormous brown eyes.

After nine days roaming the desert, ambulating in a general direction, Ryan lets go of the lead, letting the horse roam free. It trots a ways from him, but it never strays far before coming to trot beside him again. The farthest it had gotten was when Ryan was cresting a hill, and the horse was at the base. It looked like it was deciding whether to go back, or come along. Ryan looked out before him, saw the sudden sea, and walked towards it, unaware of trotting hooves coming up behind him.

There were plants here, and birds, and just – life, all around. Ryan sank to his knees into the soft soil, grabbing a handful to feel something aside from coarse sand. He saw the horse gallop towards the beach, splashing through the incoming waves. It looked so happy, prancing here in the salty water. Ryan smiles at it.

He gets up to walk nearer, and feels the soft ocean breeze come toward him. He closes his eyes, and decides to lay down on the sand. If there’s life here, then there must be a city nearby. A seagull cries overhead, and he thinks about how the ocean is a desert, too. Perfectly disguised…

Ryan falls asleep on the sand, and when he wakes up, it’s to a hand that cards through his hair. He thinks he’s dreaming still. His head is cradled in the lap of a man, with cream-colored clothes, and a halter wrapped around an arm.

“Who are you?”

The man shrugs.

“I’m Ryan.”

“Shane.”

Ryan closes his eyes, smiles. “So you do have a name after all.”

Shane smiles, his eyes crinkling as he does. It looks good on him. “We can’t all be men with no names.”

Ryan shrugs as best as he can. He tilts his head into the hand, and hums.

He hears rolling thunder coming from the sea. It feels good to be back in the rain.


End file.
